red slime?

[hng]

My 30 gal tank has been up for 9 months now and I have what I'm guessing is red slime algae. It is appearing in very specific areas of the tank, typically right at the edge of the shadows cast by the live rock. It is really dark brown/red in color and is hairy or fuzzy looking, maybe about 5-7 mm long filaments. It also seems to disappear at night or at least get better. I have a super skimmer, use activated carbon and phosban, and siphon out detritus weekly from the sump. I use ro/di water. For water flow, I have a Mag 7 return pump and two powerheads in the display itself. Nitrate and phosphate undetectable, temp 79-80, pH 7.9-8.2, T5 lights for 7 hours a day. I also have no noticeable green algae or nuisence algae otherwise in the tank. I do have a mangrove and chaeto which are both growing very slowly - so I don't think I have a major phosphate problem. I can go a week without cleaning my glass. I also feed my fish a small amount every other day. I will post pics when I get home, but does it sound like red slime? Why do I have red slime? Could it be dinos? Help me out here

[Jflip2002]

Its a bacteria, and I had it in my tank. How many crabs do you have? I was down to about 5 scarlets in my 20g. I bought some real small mini hermits, about 85 of em, and threw them in there. Ever since then, my red slime is gone. They seem to get rid of the bacteria.

[hng]

I have 3 blue legged hermits and a cleaner shrimp, 4 naisarrius snails, a handful of regular snails,and a cleaner shrimp. You think it's a bacteria and not an algae?

[tims]

hoang,
Cyano is a bacteria.
can you snap a pic of it?
DUring th eLights on period do you see more ofit?

[Jflip2002]

get more crabs, thats not nearly enough.

[reefermike1]

i think i have the same problem, more hermit crabs eh? how many? also do emerald crabs eat it too?

[hng]

Yes, it almost dissappears at night when the lights are off. Here is a pic.

[tims]

yup looks like Cyano to me.
a good cleaning and vacume during lights on will help get rid of it.
some of your parameters may not be actually what they are telling,when the cyano starts forming like that and growing, it lives of of nitrates and phosphares in the tank, watch how much youe feed and give the skimmer a real good cleaning and kick it in to high gear.
You may have to do some vacuming a few times and kepp an close eye out.
try to adjust power heads or flow in the tank to hit the areas that are not getting much

[tims]

Originally Posted by reefermike1

i think i have the same problem, more hermit crabs eh? how many? also do emerald crabs eat it too?

what size tank?
most crabs usally go after greens.

[stang5_o2002]

The only thing my hermits ever seemed to eat was leftover fish food and most of my snail population. I got rid of all mine and got more snails. I just doubled up on water changes and cut back on light and feeding to cure my red slime problem.

[reefermike1]

yep thats the same stuff, didnt have this problem before i switched to sand instead of cc. with sand i cant aim any powerheads near the bottom or i get a sandstorm, so now i guess i get cyano instead... plus the fact that the sand looks like crap because of diatoms that came back after adding it. so far i really dont see what you guys see in a dsb. im real close to putting cc back in there, or even going bb(though i hate the look of a bb tank, ive seen very few that i thought were nice looking) testing params are always 0 for trates and phosphates.

[Kathi]

I am going through the same problem. It just exploded in my 12 gal. Personally I think sand has a bit to do with it since I never had that problem with BB. I reduced the lighting time (actually kept the lights off for 24 hours) and about 1/2 of it disappeared, also changed WC to once a week instead of about every two. It is gradually disappearing. I tried to vacumm but just terrorized the tank.
Good luck.

[Jflip2002]

You need more crabs, plain and simple. I didnt have enough crabs, and that bacteria broke out. I bought 85 small tiny hermits, theyre about .5" each, and they clean my tank great. They actually even clean up all the detritus thats left over too. I bought mine on ebay, after shipping it was about $40 for the "75" which I added to 85 total that survived.

GET MORE CRABS.

[tims]

the only probelm with getting tons of crabs.. they grow, they eat, they poop.. you start the that cycle all over.. and by chance.. what happens if everythign cleans up.. your leat with 50 + crabs

[Casey]

Get you water paramaters in check and good flow and vacumm it up as you can crabs are not the anwser.